At the May 13 Commissioners Meeting, County Solicitor Tom Farley stated among other things that the requester of the above documents, Nick Troiano, was not permitted by the County to post these public reports online. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania only prohibits the publication of "public information lists" on the Internet, such as voter registration roles. But Solcitior Farley said that “[the County has] the right to say also campaign finance reports.” He also stated: “we as a county have the right to say we don’t want certain information on the Internet” and “we have that one restriction, and we can do that restriction.”
Such a "restriction" would violate the Right to Know Act and the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Perhaps that's why the Solicitor recalled differently. A 5/24/09 Times Herald Record article reported: “Farely says he didn’t tell Troiano he couldn’t put the documents on the Web, just that the County preferred he didn’t.”
You decide if the County handled this situation professionally or ethically. Instead of restricting access to public information and prohibiting its dissemination, Pike County officials should follow Allegheny County and just post the records online themselves. We should strive for more transparency and more accountability. The Internet can facilitate this.
From the Times-Herald Record:
- News Article - "After Dispute, Pike Man Allowed to Keep Campaign Documents"
- Editorial - "Obey the Law, Don't Make It"
Posts
What is FPC holding on to its money for? Why aren't items like the Web site design and the ad that ran in the Dispatch listed as FPC expenditures?
ReplyDeleteWhat about the Skype dollars too?
ReplyDeleteDuring the period covering the financial statement above (Second Friday Pre-Primary), Future of Pike County, PAC did not expend any money other than that listed on the above report. The website is listed in the report, but is not itemized because it was an in-kind donation of less than fifty dollars ($50). Furthermore, the ad that we took in the Dispatch and other expenses took place during the current campaign finance reporting cycle (Thirty Day Post-Primary). This campaign finance report is due on 18JUN2009. Thank you for your inquiry. As Treasurer, I assure you that our compliance with the Pennsylvania Campaign Finance Laws is paramount and that we believe in utmost transparency regarding these reports.
ReplyDeleteA Web site design certainly is worth more than $50, so you can understand my confusion.
ReplyDeleteYou can also understand my confusion when Bob Goldsack's report has in-kind donations under $50 itemized... but I suppose that is his mistake, if they technically don't need to be reported.
I don't understand your confusion. The design was donated, free of charge with volunteer labor. The only in-kind cost of the site was for the purchase of the domain name and for hosting, which indeed was under $50.
ReplyDelete"The design was donated, free of charge with volunteer labor."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, the design was an in-kind donation. And 99 percent of Web site designs would cost more than $50. So if in-kind donations over $50 need to be recorded, the in-kind donation of Web site design should be listed, right?
By that standard we should also list how much it would otherwise cost us to pay people to phone bank and post up signs, but since that labor was volunteered, we didn't list it. So no, I don't believe that volunteer labor that was used to build a simple Web site with free tools should be listed. The only cost that was donated in-kind, was that of the domain name and hosting.
ReplyDeleteThen why does the Web site say "Paid for" by the Future of Pike County? That's inconsistent with the finance reports and your comments.
ReplyDeleteiWeb (which, according to the site's source code, generated the site) is not a free tool.
ReplyDelete